TROY, Mich. – A plume of black smoke pouring out of the roof of Somerset Collection north could be seen for miles after a kitchen fire at The Capital Grille went up through the vents and through the roof.
Troy firefighters got on top of the blaze quickly Monday afternoon, and spared the building from significant damage. About 60-70 firefighters arrived in seconds and quickly got up on the roof to extinguish the flames.
A cloud of smoke was seen pouring out of the roof and started filling the inside of the mall.
“I started smelling something burning,” William Mclayquiragi. “Then I started asking everybody, ‘What’s going on?’ Then I started seeing more smoke, and I was like, ‘OK, I need to start getting everybody out of here,’ like ‘Everybody, please get out of the store now.’”
Read: Authorities: Somerset Collection fire started at The Capital Grille
The smoke was far more pronounced upstairs on the third-floor food court.
“It looked like it was just a lot of smoke, and it didn’t look like they were cooking,” said Kemia Bridgewater. “It looked like something was on fire.”
Customers began running when they started seeing and smelling the smoke and fire. The fire itself started in the kitchen of The Capital Grille.
“We believe that through the exhaust system of the kitchen, the fire got extended through the roof,” said Troy Fire Department Lt. Dan Mahrle.
Firefighters swarmed the inside of the restaurant and the top of the roof, attacking the flames from both ends.
“Once we figured out the situation, we were able to suppress it with our hose lines,” Mahrle said. “We were able to extend all the way through. We checked on each level of the mall to make sure we didn’t have extensions to any other portions. Luckily we didn’t have any fire damage to the other areas of the mall, but there was some water damage and smoke damage.”
Firefighters say there were no injuries.
Expect the north side of the mall to be open Tuesday. The Capital Grille will remain closed.
